Americans Are Ashamed to Admit Credit Card Debt

Banking, finance, and taxes

Published: January 19, 2016 10:25 am

Last Updated: January 13, 2020 2:53 pm

There is, apparently, a stigma attached to carrying credit card debt. More than a third of Americans say they would be embarrassed to let others know that they are not paying off their credit card debt in full every month, more than 40% say they believe they will be judged by family and friends because of credit card debt, and nearly 50% say they would be less interested in dating someone who has credit card debt.

The surprising thing is that Americans’ average credit card debt is $15,355. Talk about the elephant in the room.

The data were reported Tuesday by NerdWallet, which conducted a survey of more than 2,000 U.S. adults and found that 28% of Americans who earn less than $50,000 a year are embarrassed by their credit card debt while nearly 40% of those making at least $100,000 said they would be embarrassed by acknowledging credit card debt.

A NerdWallet executive said:

It’s no surprise that shame about debt isn’t necessarily productive in preventing or eradicating it. … Shame doesn’t guarantee success. The only way to pay off debt is to face it head on and make a plan to get rid of it.

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People living in the Midwest are most likely to be embarrassed by the debt (61%) and Southerners are next most likely (56%).

Other data points from the survey include:

More than half of millennials with credit card debt (55%) say they would feel judged if friends and family knew how much debt they were carrying.
Men in every age group said they would feel more judged by others, with millennials again (65%) posting the highest score. Millennial women (46%) felt the pressure less.
More than half (51%) of women would be less interested in dating someone with credit card debt compared with 46% of men.
Older Americans (62%, aged 65 and older) would be less interested in dating someone with credit card debt compared with 46% of millennials.
The older Americans, however, would feel less judged (26%) for having debt than would millennials (55%).